Oakley Wines is closing after seven years as a staple East Side wine shop, the store’s co-owner Stephanie Webster announced in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
“This wasn’t an easy decision and comes with a lot of emotion and reflection. The community we’ve built over the last seven years is truly special — this place means so much to so many people, including myself,” Webster wrote.
The shop, located at 4011 Allston St., hosts its last day of service on July 27.
Webster, who owns Oakley Wines and its sister shop, The Rhined, at 1737 Elm St., with her husband, David Webster, wrote that she was stretched too thin “balancing life as a mom while operating two locations.”
“I just can’t give Oakley Wines the time and energy it truly deserves to remain a successful and thriving business,” Webster added.
In its years of operation, Oakley Wines has acted as the launchpad for a handful of Cincinnati’s standout restaurants, including hosting St. Francis Apizza as a pop-up pizzeria when it went by the name Sunday Sauce.
Other restaurants that either launched or spent time there are Bee’s Barbecue in Madisonville and Over-the-Rhine, the nationally acclaimed Cafe Mochiko in Walnut Hills, the Olive Tree Syrian restaurant at Findlay Market, and Aperture, a Walnut Hills restaurant by chef Jordan Anthony Brown.
Oakley Wines has also worked with several chefs who have gone on to work at some of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants, including Francisco Alfaro and Joe Cheek, who now helm the kitchen at Mid-City Restaurant, among many others, The Enquirer previously reported.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Influential wine shop to close after 7 years of boosting Cincinnati’s restaurant scene
Reporting by Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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